“There is one, there!” Gerala said. I saw him walk through the rock dragons with a knife.
He was heading for Aknu! My own favorite. His dark gray scales glowed just like my skin. He was so busy eating, and so tamed by the mist, that he didn’t look up until Gerala was almost on top of him.
This was some sort of trick, then, to weed out any rock dragons with the blood of Orvenu. It sounded like it was something they were practiced in doing, as well.
“No!” I charged out of the rock, keeping some of the rocks bonded to my skin. Gerala froze. The rock shaped around my fist and he barely missed a punch that would have clocked him. He ducked aside, the knife knocked out of his hand.
“Ezeru!” Rothair exclaimed. “It’s you.”
I grabbed the knife. “You seem to know me, but who are you?”
“Sacred stones,” he said, eyes widening. “You really are a man.”
I was getting quite tired of this reaction; I’d heard it a lot. “It certainly doesn’t sound like a compliment,” I said. “I might try my hand at cutting out a tongue myself if you say it again.”
He chuckled. “Ezeru, I’m your uncle,” he said.
“If you’re implying that Izeria is my mother—she is no mother of mine.”
“Sons rebel sometimes,” Rothair said. “But you are still the only son she has. As you know, my sister has unfortunately been unable to have a child of her own blood. But…she had you. It pains me to hear this in person, that you are so ungrateful, after all the gifts she’s bestowed on you.”
“I’ve never heard of you,” I said.
“That’s because I’ve been in the sky world for many years,” Rothair said. “I am a potential guardian to the priestess of the gate, and so unlike most other dragons, I survived when I went through the gates. The blind king threw me out there when he was just an arrogant boy; he thought I’d die, but in fact, he did me a favor. I’ve been living among the humans, as one of them. I imagine she didn’t say much about me just in case.”
“A potential guardian? You’re not the guardian of the current priestess?”
“Yes. I would only become a guardian if this priestess died.” This seemed like an ominous fact. “Ezeru…you owe Izeria what you are. And what a fine job she did, too. I have to say…I didn’t expect this. I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. I know everything Izeria had planned for you…” He trailed off, looking at my crown. “Wait—are you actually wearing the black crown? How did you steal it?”
“I didn’t steal it. It was at Irandal.”
“That’s quite impossible,” Gerala said. “When I took this skull from the chamber of treasures, it was right there. That one must be a fake.”
“So you stole the rock dragon prince’s skull?” I asked sharply.
“Well, well, we all do have stories to tell…” Rothair looked down, shaking his head in apparent wonder. “All right, Ezeru. I can’t promise that my sister won’t want to punish you when you get back, but you really must go home. I insist. I’ll send a letter on your behalf. It’s possible she was too harsh on you, but I tell you—they were going to make you the heir to the kingdom.”
“My name is Ezeru,” I said. “It means ‘unwanted’. It isn’t the name you give a son.”
“Well…Dvaro did not want you,” Rothair said. “That is true. They were younger, then. There was still a chance they might have had a child of their own, and of course, he wished for that, like any man would. He didn’t approve of Izeria’s attempt to make you into something.”
“I have never seen you before in my life,” I said. “But are you aware of what your sister did to me? Day after day, she locked me in a room with mist that choked my lungs. I could barely breathe to call for help. And yes, she made it obvious how pleased she was with her progress. She didn’t care what it did to me. While she was patting her back over making me intelligent and strong, I don’t think my happiness crossed her my mind once. And the court has never welcomed me. I highly doubt they ever planned to make me their heir.”
“You’re looking back on this as an oversensitive child,” Rothair said. “In the ranks of the Elders where I’ve been spending my time, it isn’t so different. Young recruits have to endure hardships to prove themselves and move up the ranks. That’s all she was doing to you.”
“Ezeru,” Gerala said. “Our great king was beginning to honor you with missions of your own. That was the first step.”
“Oh, do you like me now, Gerala? Now you want a rock dragon at court?”
“So you’ve decided the high dragons are better? Do you know the story of this castle? High dragons kept your people as slaves.”
“Actually, yes. I do know the story. I came here to see if it’s true that I have the blood of King Orvenu. It seems like your spell answered my question.”
“Orvenu’s rock dragon son was exiled to this unpleasant castle,” Gerala said. “Isn’t it the sorriest place you’ve ever seen? Mist and rock dragons have always been treated badly by the dragons you align yourself with now.” His expression softened slightly. “Come with me. I’ll take you home. As Rothair said, I’ll speak for you. Izeria probably was a little harsh, because of how desperately she wanted to see you become strong.”
I trembled. “Maybe you really think that her cruelty was doing me a favor. That strength is all that matters. And maybe I would have thought so too, except for Per—” I stopped abruptly.
Shit. Intelligent? Never mind that.
Rothair gave Gerala a tight smile.
“See?” he said. “It’s just as I thought. Peri is a traitor. She’s the mother of a guardian and she groomed this boy to betray Izeria.”
I bit back a curse.
“And yet…you abandoned Peri,” Rothair said. “You sense that your destiny goes beyond her. And it does.”
“She wanted me to leave,” I growled. But I did feel guilty for leaving her, even at her order.
“Right now you’re wearing a doomed crown. I suppose it’s up to you. I hope you’re not just a stupid rock dragon, in the end,” Rothair said. “You are young yet. Izeria would have made you the greatest warrior this world has ever seen.”
“My people are, and will always be, the rock dragons. I am their king. However low you might think them…I will fight for them.” I reached for Rothair’s robes, and he took a quick step back. He met my eyes for a moment, and oddly, I sensed that he was not easily intimidated. But he looked away from me.
“Is he immune to the mists?” Gerala asked, sounding a little nervous.
“He shouldn’t be,” Rothair said.
“No, Gerala is right,” I said. “I’m not susceptible to mists anymore.” I wondered if there was any way to salvage this encounter.
No. There isn’t. I have to kill them, so they won’t hurt Peri.
There was no time for guilt or hesitation. Dvaro had no problem asking me to kill for him; this was my own test of whether I had a problem striking back.
Gerala and Rothair exchanged a brief glance.
They’re thinking the same thing.
“If you won’t come back to the queen, we’re going to have to punish you,” Gerala said.
“Then I will have to retaliate in turn,” I said.
“So be it.” Gerala whipped off his robe and turned dragon, his scales a bluish gray that immediately began to seep dark mist that made my breath come more strained.
I saw the rock dragons, lethargic from the first mist, struggling to breathe themselves.
“So you are not entirely immune,” Gerala said.
I turned rocks into blades and flung them at him. The dragon screeched as one of them sliced his side, blood welling at the gash. I quickly followed up with another attack. A sharp rock sank into his stomach and he let out an even higher pitched cry.
I staggered back, straining to breathe.
When I couldn’t breathe, my biggest challenge was not to panic. Not to remember Izeria, throwing me in a tight little room to release her
mists on me. The room would be so thick with them that I could barely see, the strange smell of them—something a little like blood and heady flowers in bloom—was in my nose, and I was choking on them. I would hear her shut the door on me, and her voice behind it. Don’t cry. Only babies cry, and you’re not a baby, are you? You’re getting stronger. You’re so special to me, Ezeru.
Did she really care? I wondered.
No, cruelty was cruelty. I knew the difference. Rothair and these mists were getting in my head.
“He’s not that strong, after all. Look at him. He sounds like a sickly attu. The only sound thing to do is kill him and bring the body to Izeria.”
I tried to suppress my wheezing breath. If I could stop thinking of my fear of Izeria and of something happening to Peri—
But they really could hurt her.
I knew Peri would want me to let her go and tell Seron, Aurek and Himika what I knew. She had been prepared to sacrifice herself.
Gerala struck back while I was trying to recover. I threw up a rock wall in the nick of time, but he struck down several rock dragons instead. Damnit, I couldn’t protect them; there were too many. I could hardly tell mine from the random ones. As if it mattered—one was just as much my kin as the next, in the end. The rock dragons were poisoned and weak just now, I couldn’t depend on them for backup until the mists faded off. If I’d gone into this as a battle, I could have split them up so they couldn’t be felled by the mists all at once.
“Turn into a dragon, Ezeru,” Rothair said. “Fight back!”
“I don’t need to turn into a dragon…to fight back.” His challenge spurred me on to shake off the constricted feeling in my chest, and I drew up the rock beneath Gerala’s feet into spikes, stabbing him.
He screamed, tearing his feet off the spikes, but then he snapped at my arm and dragged me onto the surface of the geode.
“Ugh!” His teeth cut through the leather clothing.
“You want to fight?” Gerala growled low in my ear, as he whipped back to strike me. I ran down to the rock wall of the castle, nearly stumbling, slamming my palms into the rock, parting the wall. Gods, let me keep breathing. I was almost safe inside the rock—
Gerala grabbed my leg and dragged me back up. His teeth hurt. He could snap my leg off right then and there if I couldn’t—
Himika’s face flashed into my mind, as clear as if she stood before me. When the rock dragons attacked, she believed I could find a way to turn them to my side. You’re so strong, she said. She was waiting for me to return.
Peri wasn’t the only one I couldn’t let down.
I flung my hands out toward the rock walls of the castle, and drew out another attack, spikes of rock flying into my hands. With the force of my magic, I plunged them into Gerala, driving one into his heart.
He slumped to the ground, bringing me down with him. His body fell on top of me, my hands still clutching the rock spikes, my head striking crystal. For a moment, I struggled for consciousness. I heard footsteps slowly approaching. Stars filled my eyes.
This is it, I thought. I got Gerala, but Rothair will get me. Hopefully…at least he will say that I fought well at the end…and Himika will know…
“Himika…,” I whispered. “Please…”
Rothair’s boot struck my head, hard enough for more stars to bloom in my eyes, but not hard enough to wound me, at least I didn’t think so. “Not bad,” he said, with a rather light sigh.
“You just…” I coughed. “You let Gerala die.”
“I should have aided him,” Rothair said. “But he relies too heavily on his mist magic. He should have known you were immune. I told him…he needs to pay more attention. You, on the other hand, did not hesitate. You knew what had to be done and you did it. You’re a warrior. This is what I meant when I said that she wanted to make you strong. A coddled youth would not have gotten this result.”
I could see him now. He looked lofty and stern, short dark hair and cloth robes. I tried my best to ignore his speech and think of Peri and of Himika. I was braced for him to kill me now, and I didn’t want my last moments in this world to be occupied by his words.
“Izeria—loves you. So I’m not going to kill you,” Rothair said. “Not today.”
There was an odd tenor to his voice, and I believed him, although I wasn’t sure why.
“I’m going to let you go and meet again on the battlefield, fair and square…or maybe even as allies. I still hold out hope for you,” he said. “There are ways to redeem you.”
“Please don’t kill Peri,” I said. “She isn’t involved.”
“Pleas make you sound weak,” Rothair said, nudging my head again. “Don’t do that. You’re one of the strongest men in this kingdom, Ezeru. Appreciate your great destiny, instead of squandering it.” He jerked his head away and left me there to struggle out from under Gerala’s body on my own. I heard the cart riding off down the path.
By the time I had truly caught my breath, the rock dragons were starting to come out of the influence of the mist. Some of them crept down to help me. My own strength was recovering too.
“King okay?”
“King hurt.” Nuru patted my hair. “Bad dragons make bad times?”
“Yes,” I said wryly. “They do make bad times. Are you okay? Are the children okay?”
A chitter of query and then one of assurance passed back and forth among them. “Good,” I said, clutching my head.
“Maybe I should have tried harder to kill them both,” I murmured.
“Kill bad dragons,” they agreed.
My rock dragons were talking to the other rock dragons, spreading the word that I was the king. I left them to it, and looked toward the castle Imaru.
Inside the doors, the castle was quite dark. Only occasional crystals glowed to guide my path as I walked into a grand hall. Stands to hold torches lay toppled on the floor. Dust covered surfaces, chairs around a hearth, rugs and tapestries that had rotted into tatters, their images too faded and ruined to make out. The long table in the dining hall was stained with blood. There was broken glass everywhere. This place was full of history, too distant to know, unless there was a library somewhere with good records, but I expected someone would have taken those already.
The castle was eerily quiet, full of ghosts, its halls and rooms chilly. It was not a pleasant place, and I could see why it was abandoned, especially as I saw rooms where dragon battles had torn off chunks of the roof around the kitchens and storage rooms. I saw some piles of well aged bones.
In the meeting room, beyond the circlets of melted candles hanging from the ceiling, I stopped in my tracks at the untouched painting that hung above the fireplace.
A portrait of a couple.
The rock dragon son of Orvenu, and his bride. She had vivid green eyes, long braids of white-blonde hair, and was richly ornamented in gold and emeralds with a short cape of fur. And he had the ugly, dark face of a rock dragon. Or was it so ugly, after all? I still struggled to accept that women seemed attracted to me, because all I could see was the rock dragon in my blood, and all I could see in him were the ways we looked alike. She was just so beautiful, so delicate compared to the hard line of his nose, thick brows, sharp jawline, like he had been carved from the rock and she had bloomed from a garden.
He was simply dressed and held a book in one hand. Their other hands clasped, and their eyes met. They were gazing fondly at each other, and I could not help but think the person who painted them must have loved his lord and lady. This picture didn’t shy back from the truth.
Whatever scandalous circumstances had produced the half-breed prince, however different he might be, he was still worthy of her love.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Himika
“Tell me everything you know,” Niko said. “About this Traitor King, and the mist dragons. Everything. I would go after her right now if I knew where to find her.”
“You’ll just get yourself killed,” Aurek said, a bit blearily. Everyone exc
ept Niko—and Oszin, who liked to keep his wits about him—was somewhat hung over.
“We have some stuff in the library,” Seron said. “For starters.”
I knew our first council meeting with Niko was going to be tense, which is why I made sure to be there, right on time, with some tea to help nurse their headaches. “Drink your tea, I made it for you!” I told the guys.
Seron sipped and so did I. I had definitely indulged quite a bit last night, much more than Father would have ever approved of.
“I’m certainly glad drink doesn’t do anything to me,” Niko said.
“Yes, yes, we know.” Aurekdel rubbed his head.
The rest of the ministers were in no better shape. The finance minister was nearly nodding off. “Stars above, if anyone wanted to attack this place, they just have to wait for a party!” I said. “Aurek, drink your tea.”
Niko rapped his fingers on the table. “Your council meetings might be even worse than mine.”
“Oh, no, I’m not going to have you say that my council is worse than my brother’s council,” I said. “Seron, wake up.”
Seron rolled his head around and straightened up. “Okay. Yes. We have important matters to address. Niko—you want to rescue your mother.”
“I do, absolutely, but also in a way that will succeed. When I was here before, we didn’t have much time, but I want to know in explicit detail exactly why the mist dragons are banned from court. Because from everything I have heard, my mother wanted to be a part of this court. The ladies of this castle even remember her coming here to look at books in the library! But…they also said that she could only come here when King Aurekdel was not in residence.” He turned a cold gaze to Aurek.
“You can’t pin this on me,” Aurek said, a bit defensively. “Mist dragons simply haven’t been permitted here for centuries. At this point, everyone is so bitter over a countless list of wars, battles, feuds, squabbles and slights that we can’t let the snake in the door.”
“My mother was a snake? You reveal your true colors.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set Page 44
